Hurricane Florence: Help Babies in North Carolina

About a month after Hurricane Florence hit and hovered over North and South Carolina, many in the state remain displaced and struggling with access to basic needs.

“We’re still dealing with feeding people that are placed in hotels,” said Jose Ortega, who had been in the area to help people impacted by Hurricane Michael in 2016. “To watch every home that we rebuilt (since Michael) get devastated again, and our warehouse devastated – even our house here for volunteers was flooded.”

Flooding, indeed. Hurricane Florence did not deliver its impact like a typical hurricane, according to an article on SupplyChainDive.com. Usually, hurricanes move in, create massive damage in a centralized area and move on. Florence, however, brought longlasting rains across the two states that caused massive flooding, destroyed structures, and closed roads.

A majority of the people Jose and his team are still serving include renters whose landlords are unable to fix their buildings, and so these people cannot go home yet, he said. This includes a lot of parents with young children in the hotels, and it’s been important to provide diapers and formula to these families.

Thanks to our generous donors and volunteers at a packing party shortly after the storm, Jake’s Diapers was able to respond and make an impact. To date, we have sent ….

• 29,037 disposable diapers sent to 2,904 kids impacted by Hurricane Florence
• 1,708 cloth diapers sent to 149 kids impacted by Hurricane Florence
• 15,120 period products to 756 women impacted by Hurricane Florence

That’s more than 45,000 total hygiene products to nearly 4,000 people impacted by the storm, thanks to your support! I encourage you to reach me at stephanie@jakesdiapers.org with any questions you may have. I'd love to hear from you. 

~ Stephanie